


Secrets Might Come Tumbling

by ReptileRuler



Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [14]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Discussions on Defectiveness, Emotional Baggage, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29427012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReptileRuler/pseuds/ReptileRuler
Summary: Purple has to search the Massive for Zim after saying something hurtful.Febuwhump 2021 DAY 14: “I didn’t mean it”
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Purple & Zim
Series: PRaZ FebuWhump [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137614
Kudos: 23
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Secrets Might Come Tumbling

**Author's Note:**

> Difters AU part 2  
> Takes place some time after the first one.  
> Zim has a schmillion mental defenses up at all times

It was still so unfamiliar to be around a Zim who actually comprehended what he was being told. Who reacted semi-rationally and spoke up against them when they gave orders in a way he didn’t like.

The fact that they’d actually started…  _ caring  _ made it so much worse.

“Zim?” Purple called.

The Massive was so huge, and an Irken standing at just three height-things could literally crawl into any old nook and simply not be found. If Zim wanted to, he could stay away for all of eternity while still living on the same ship as them. “Zim!”

Purple wished he hadn’t offered to go look for the roach. Sure, it had been his fault, and sure, he wanted to apologize to Zim, but still, walking around in the echoing corridors of the Massive and calling for him was both annoying and a waste of energy. “Hey, Zim! I’m talking to you! I wanna, ugh, apologize for what I said, so just come out so I can do it already!” His patience was already wearing thin. 

Nobody answered him, and Purple stood there like an idiot while cold machinery hummed and clunked around him. 

Stupid, stupid, why had he even said anything in the first place, stupid…

Purple entered a room at random. It was dark and empty and smelled like no one had been in there in years. He turned around and tried a different door. Same result.

There were thousands of rooms in the ship! He’d be stuck searching forever!

“I’ll make you a sandwich”, he tried bargaining, “a really good one! Promise! Just, just talk to me, Zim…”

Nothing. Zim probably hadn’t even heard. He could be on the other side of the ship for all Purple knew. 

“Ugh.”

Then, something clunked. Not a normal ship clunk, but something like maybe a PAK leg knocking something over. Purple’s antennae twitched.

“Zim?”

Nothing. He looked in the direction the sound had come from. The corridor branched off into a part of the Massive that they kept dark, simply because there was nothing there and they were three people sharing one planet-sized ship and they needed to save energy  _ somewhere. _

“Are you seriously in there?” Annoyance flaring up again, he marched into the darkness. It wasn’t a hindrance, walking down an unlit hallway, not with two functioning optical implants and his antennae working to pick up the slack when his eyes couldn’t make something out.

Zim only had one good eyeball, though. Why on Irk would he willingly go anywhere where his senses were even more limited??

Ultimately, Purple found Zim behind a mountain of barrels. Once upon a time they may have contained important stuff, but now they were just there, taking up space that nobody really needed. Zim’s PAK legs poked out from behind the junk, their mechanical joints the only source of light in the room. 

Purple huffed and made his way into the storage room. 

Zim sat on the floor, hugging himself, with his PAK legs out like a protective cage of sorts.

“Zim.”

Zim didn’t look up, just glared harder at the floor.

“Why on Irk are you hiding in here?” he asked, one hand on his hip. It was clear that Zim wasn’t going to answer him, though. 

“Ugh…”

Turning on his Diplomat personality, Purple sat down gracefully on the floor, and spent some time flattening out the folds of his robe. He took a deep breath.

“I apologize for calling you, um, that”, he said, “I didn’t mean it.”

Zim was silent for a moment. Their breaths echoed in the room and everything smelled vaguely dusty. That’s what they got for having such a stupidly large ship. 

“I don’t care whether or not you think of me as defective”, Zim said finally. He didn’t look up and he didn’t move his PAK legs. “As we are not part of the empire any more, it is of little consequence if any of us abide to its norms.”

“I- … wow”, Purple said, taken aback. Once again, he had to remind himself that Zim was older and wiser now, and as always, the notion sent a wave of disorientation through him. “But you- Hey, then why did you just run off like that? Why are we sitting in some dumb storage room right now? Huh?”

A snarl.

“You were not required to come looking for me”, he said. Purple felt a headache start to emerge.

“Well, I did anyway, because I didn’t mean to hurt you. Unfortunately.”

Zim gave off some kinda laugh, or maybe like an angry snort meant to acknowledge Purple's amazing humor even though he didn’t find it funny. That was some form of success, though.

“Besides”, he continued, “I meant it, when I said I  _ didn’t  _ mean it. I don’t think you’re… defective, anymore.”

At that, Zim finally looked up. He didn’t look like he believed that.

“Or rather, I don’t think that the criteria used to judge defectiveness are fair. I mean, the  _ word  _ doesn’t make any sense. You could just point at any old Irken you don’t want around, and claim that they’re defective. There’s always  _ something  _ for the Control Brains to dig up that supports the claim”, he waved his hand around.

“Purple. My PAK corrupted three Control Brains during my Existence Evaluation”, Zim said, but his body unfolded, and his PAK legs moved so that he was no longer in a self-made cage.

“Oh. Yeah, that’s right”, Purple said, thinking back to that day. They’d almost killed Zim back then. Good times…

He shrugged. So maybe Zim had  _ some  _ kind of bad code or corruption in his PAK. It ruined some of Purple’s arguments, but not his change in opinion. 

“As I said”, Zim said, folding away his PAK legs once and for all, “It doesn’t matter. I am Zim, and I am great. The empire can think what it wants.”

Purple scooted so that he sat beside Zim, leaning against the empty barrel mountain. 

The room was still dark. He’d gotten used to it, but there was still something weird about sitting here, in a storage room, talking about stuff like this. 

It felt like secrets might come tumbling out.


End file.
